A "jobs" fair where there are no jobs being offered.
I'm unemployed. Looking hard for a job. And getting nowhere. If you show up in person at a company and try to shop your resume around, they tell you to "go home and apply online". The lack of human contact gets maddening after awhile.
I attended this job fair, in Bloomington MN, mainly because I wanted a little human contact with some real persons, maybe a chance to network a bit, etc. OMG.
I arrived at the hotel where this fair was taking place, and found the lobby outside the room absolutely crammed with suffering humanity. You could smell the desperation from a mile off. The line to register was winding through and through the room and down the hall. There was one woman standing in line with a crying baby, she gave up her place in line to go to the restroom and calm the baby down. I'm thinking, at the time "how desperate do you have to be to attend a job fair with a baby in your arms?"
So I stand in the line (which admittedly, moved pretty fast) and went into THE ROOM, with all the companies that were supposed to be potential employers. Wow. About ten companies altogether, only two of which were actually hiring. AAA was hiring insurance salespeople. The lady took my resume, but told me that without any kind of high-powered sales experience, I didn't have a chance of being hired by them. The other company that was actually hiring was a home health care agency looking for people to care for the disabled in their homes. Lots of driving and ability to lift 70+ pounds were the criteria.
Well, I applaud those two companies. At least they were honestly there to hire people. The rest? Not so much.
There was a community college there looking to sign people up to attend. Not hiring, just looking for new students. There was a financial services company there wanting to advise you, for a fee, what to do with the rest of your rapidly vanishing 401k. There was a community action group there who was not hiring, but was looking for money and volunteers (work for no money, and someday somebody might be impressed enough by that to offer you a real job). Not that I have anything against community action groups, but flying under false pretences like that at a "job" fair just stuck in my craw.
In short, out of about a whole ten of companies present at this "jobs" fair, only two were actually hiring people. The rest were selling services. Preying on the desperate and unemployed, I would call it.
This is what it's come down to. And then I come home to the news of a Scott Brown win in Mass.
Well - yesterday sucked. Bigtime.
Sometimes I see those movie trailers about Apocalypse 2012 and think "bring it on". The end of 2012 is when my money's due to run out anyway.
Sorry for this rant. I'm just so disgusted. One thing about applying for jobs online - at least I don't have to see the nine million other poor desperate souls applying for the same job.
I'm starting to create my own job. Barter services, etc. I don't know what else to do at this point. I hope for better for all the rest of you.
And me too. Maybe we just have to bypass these guys and create our own economy. I'm sort of stymied at this point. Appreciate any thoughts.